By email to: An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, TD; the Minister for Justice and Equality, Charles Flanagan, TD; the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, TD; the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Eoghan Murphy, TD; the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty; the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone; the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, TD; the Minister of State with responsibility for equality, immigration and integration, David Stanton, TD; the Minister of State with special responsibility for disability issues, Finian McGrath; Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health; Paul Reid, Chief Executive Officer, Health Services Executive.

URGENT RE: SOCIAL DISTANCING AND DIRECT PROVISION

Dear Government representatives and State officials,

We are specialists spanning fields of health systems, public health, social policy, law, human rights, migration and racism.

We write to express our utmost concern that the State is continuing at this time to require large numbers of people seeking international protection to live in shared bedrooms, and to share sanitary and eating facilities, within the direct provision system. This has prevented many people from socially distancing according to Government advice, with the aim of avoiding contracting COVID-19 and avoiding passing the virus on to others while they may be asymptomatic.

Many direct provision centres are in rural locations. An outbreak of COVID-19 within a centre, where people have not been in a position to socially distance themselves from one another, could spread rapidly and create a cluster of cases which the local health system in any given location may be unable to manage. It is also important to note that a number of people living in direct provision centres work as care providers for others in the community.

In every region of Ireland at present there are unprecedented numbers of empty hotel rooms, student accommodation units and self-catering holiday accommodation units. We implore you to act now, to provide own-door accommodation and individualised access to sanitation and eating facilities to every family unit and single person in the international protection system, given that such action is practicable at this time. This matter is urgent, given that several cases of COVID-19 in direct provision centres have already been reported.

The small financial allowance provided to people seeking international protection (€29.80 per week for a child, and €38.80 per week for an adult) does not enable those living within the direct provision system to find alternative, private accommodation in order to socially distance themselves from others. On the other hand, in light of the scale of the emergency socio-economic measures which the Government is putting in place for the rest of the Irish population at this time, it is reasonable to expect the Government also to invest in ensuring the safety of international protection applicants to the greatest extent practicable.

We note that the Government decided in the past few weeks to remove international protection applicants from emergency accommodation (which may have included hotels) into new direct provision centres. The rationale for this, according to the Minister for Justice and Equality, is that it is easier to communicate HSE advice to people when they are gathered together in direct provision centres. However, in our view, it is eminently possible to find ways to communicate with people while also ensuring that they are enabled to self-isolate in own-door accommodation.

The Minister for Justice and Equality has further stated that his Department has instructed each direct provision centre to create self-isolation facilities for use by those suspected to have COVID-19, and that the Department of Justice and Equality will pilot ‘off-site self-isolation’ for people suspected of having COVID-19.

There are two major flaws to this approach:

First, as per the HSE’s Guidance and the Government’s current instructions to the rest of the national population, social distancing from others before a person shows signs of infection with COVID-19 is necessary in order to prevent the spread of the virus - since COVID-19 can be transmitted by individuals who are not demonstrating or reporting symptoms.

Second, reports from residents suggest that at least some direct provision centres are creating self-isolation facilities which are manifestly inappropriate, in that they do not allow for physical distancing and provide no privacy for the patient in their illness or recovery.

We further note that the Deputy Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality wrote in the past few days to people living in direct provision centres to assure them that the Department is ‘actively sourcing new accommodation to reduce the numbers in some settings’. We urge the Government immediately to find as many private rooms as necessary to ensure that every family unit and every single person currently within the international protection system is able to socially distance from others. As mentioned above, the accommodation is available and this matter is now urgent.

The Government’s recently published guidance on ensuring an ethical approach to managing the crisis, An Ethical Framework for Decision-Making in a Pandemic, stresses that the implementation of public health measures should protect the interests of vulnerable populations and ensure that measures taken do not result in increased health inequalities. In other words, in a pandemic, public health measures must apply to all; every person must be able to benefit from public health support, with the assistance of the State if necessary.

We remind the Government that Article 2 and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights continue to apply at this time. We are concerned that if the State does not take steps which are clearly practicable to ensure own-door accommodation for all single persons and family units in the international protection system, in order to allow them to socially distance from others in the same way as the national population generally is being instructed to do, it may find itself falling foul of these legal requirements. The threat to life from Coronavirus is known. The Government’s position, based on public health expertise, is that social distancing (including of those who are not displaying symptoms of COVID-19) is necessary to reduce insofar as is possible the rate of transmission of the virus. Failing to act to enable international protection applicants, an extremely vulnerable group, to follow this public health advice may lead to unnecessary deaths. It is clear to us that the powerlessness of many people in direct provision to socially distance as per the Government’s advice to the general population is already causing feelings of intense anxiety, humiliation and distress.

We acknowledge the enormous efforts that the Government and front line workers, including civil servants, have made in seeking to respond effectively to this global crisis within a limited timeframe. We hope that this letter will encourage further action to ensure that individuals living within direct provision are equally included within the Government’s approach to safeguarding public health at this worrying time.